Chinese policemen patrol a street near the railway station in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan province on March 2, 2014 . / AFP/Getty Images

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

BEIJING (AP) - Four people were hacked to death in a knife fight at a market Friday in southern China, and one person was fatally shot by police, state media said.

Conflicting reports said the violence was either a fight between two peddlers from the far west Muslim region of Xinjiang or between peddlers and customers.

It was the second fatal incident in two weeks involving knives and people from Xinjiang. On March 1, 29 people were killed in a knife attack at a train station in southwestern China that the government blamed on Xinjiang separatists.

Calls to Changsha police headquarters rang unanswered.

A man who answered the phone at the news office of the provincial Hunan Public Security Bureau said the authorities were investigating and gave no detail. He gave only his surname Lu, as is common with Chinese bureaucrats.

The newspaper Changsha Evening News said a fight erupted between two peddlers, but local radio station Hunan Jiaotong said it was a dispute between peddlers and customers.

One suspect was shot dead by police while fleeing, the Changsha Evening News said.

One person was captured, the Hunan Daily newspaper said. It gave no details of the person's identity.